Wii U

I'm a huge Nintendo fan, (now to be clear, I'm not a crazy huge fan as I don't own every Mario and Legend of Zelda game to have been released since the inception of the NES) and I'm pretty much willing to follow them almost wherever they decided to go. I own the Wii, DS and 3DS. At a point in time, Nintendo was the king of graphics. Anyone who plays a Nintendo 64 game today, like my two favorites: Donkey Kong 64 and Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, will admit they still continue to look great. So it does bring me some considerable sadness to see Nintendo forcing themselves into the HD world. Anyone who bought a Wii, even from day one, knew that they bought it for the experience and not the graphics.

But now it's 2012 and not 2006. Nintendo is playing hardball on this new console and I like it. But at the moment everyone needs to be on the same exact page, the Wii U is an upgrade of the Wii. HD graphics, new controller (but Wiimotes are still compatible which is a HUGE plus for Nintendo) and the inclusion of HDMI. Now that we have this out of the way, lets get to the big questions.

Price
This console is going to be set at a pretty high price on launch day. There is no way Nintendo is going to repeat their mistake of pricing the Wii at $250 this time around (and let's not even talk about the $250 3DS launch price). To my estimates, the console will be priced around $300-400. I am 100% willing to pay the $400, anything higher than that would really make me question if the investment for a Wii U is actually worth it. The Wii U controller is not an iPad 3. But on the other hand, $400 is completely worth the price for owning a Legend of Zelda game, regardless if it's a launch day title or five years from now. On top of all of this, imagine Nintendo gets into the whole HD remake scene. The possibilities would be endless: Donkey Kong 64 HD, Banjo Kazooie HD or even Mario Party HD. (Lets be honest people, after Mario Party 3, every mini-game has just small variations of each other.)


Games and Franchises
One of the things that makes this console so attractive is the list of franchises that could crossover (and I mean pretty much every single franchise, even Psychonauts 2 whenever it gets developed). Assassin's Creed III has already been confirmed to appear (maybe even as a launch title?). I'd like to assume that the majority of games will probably be released and advertised as PS3, 360, PC and Wii U from now on. But lets get real here, no one is going to buy a Wii U for an Assassin's Creed or a Call of Duty or a Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which continues to look amazing and I don't see why it wouldn't be released on the Wii U now). The selling demographic, which I include myself in, is Nintendo fans who want to see their favorite Nintendo franchises in HD: Mario, Legend of Zelda, Kirby, etc. The only non-Nintendo game I'm really looking forward to go through its evolution on the Wii U is Epic Mickey. People complain about the camera as if it was E.T. for the Atari but it is easily one of the most underrated games of 2010. These are all games I would buy day one without a doubt, but at the end of the day, the ONLY game I'd really buy the Wii U for is the new Super Smash Bros. game. I bought the Wii for Brawl and wouldn't miss the opportunity to get this new one too. Plus the proposed cross play between the 3DS and Wii U makes the game just that much more appealing. More disk memory means hopefully the largest character roster ever. (Nintendo, you better not bring up some DLC bs. What has made all the SSB games fun til this day is the countless hours needed just to unlock certain characters. Mr. Game & Watch, I'm talking about you!)

Final Thoughts
I'm going to buy the Wii U but if it's over $400 then Nintendo better give me some free games or a discount off of launch day titles because if not, I'm going to have to pass it up and wait for a price drop. The only two games/franchises I'm looking forward to buying is Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Bros, but if Warren Spector would like to create another exclusive version of Epic Mickey or have Epic Mickey 2 on launch day, then count me in. The only deal breaker for me to not buy the console would be if it just didn't work at all, as in not turn on or not read games. So until Nintendo gives a release date, I will wait attentively for E3.